Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018
- – This is a past exhibition
Allen Ruppersberg (American, b. 1944) has been collecting, rearranging, and retelling real life for more than fifty years. A pioneer of Conceptual art—a way of working in which an idea dictates an artwork’s final form—Ruppersberg has persistently embraced the use of language and everyday materials, focusing on what he calls “the vocabulary of the ordinary.” Though it varies in style and technique, his art is unified by his consistent use of his extensive collections of American ephemera and printed matter.
Hailing from Cleveland, Ruppersberg has divided his time between Los Angeles and New York since the 1970s. He moved to California in 1962 to study commercial art. His interests, however, soon shifted as he joined a growing scene of artists exploring the interface of words and images against the backdrop of Hollywood and the counter-culture of the 1960s.His early projects—wry photo narratives, a novel copied by hand, and environments filled with found objects—established his ongoing practice of making works that prompt an experience of both reading and looking as they intertwine fact with fiction.
This exhibition, the artist’s first major US retrospective in more than thirty years, charts the themes that are key to Ruppersberg’s work: movement between places, presence and absence, the book as object and subject, memorials, and self-portraiture. It also reveals his reverence for the by-products of culture that are “destined to disappear” from regular use, such as postcards, old films, and hand-painted signs. By reframing remnants from the past, Ruppersberg seeks a space between art and reality as he celebrates the poetics of everyday life.
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018 is organized by the Walker Art Center, and curated by senior curator Siri Engberg, with assistance from curatorial fellows Jordan Carter and Fabián Leyva-Barragán. The Hammer’s presentation is organized by curator Aram Moshayedi, with curatorial assistant Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi.
-
Allen Ruppersberg, Untitled, 1967Site-specific installation with found utility box, hay bale, and metal folding chair, Pacific Coast Highway, California (destroyed). Courtesy the artist. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Location Piece, 1968Eight canvas panels, glass, light, natural elements. Installation view at Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California, 1969. Norton Simon Museum; Gift of Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles. Image courtesy Norton Simon Museum. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Untitled (Canvas Aquarium), 1968Glass aquarium with light; canvas panel, feather, rocks. Courtesy Greene Naftali, New York; photo: Martha Fleming-Ives. -
Street view and façade of Al’s Café at 1913 West 6th Street, Los AngelesCourtesy the artist; photos: Gary Krueger. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Meals from Al’s Café, 1969Mix media, aluminum pie tins, paper placemats. Courtesy the artist; photos: Gary Krueger; digital scan: Augusta Wood. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Meals from Al’s Café, 1969Mix media, aluminum pie tins, paper placemats. Courtesy the artist; photos: Gary Krueger; digital scan: Augusta Wood. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Meals from Al’s Café, 1969Mix media, aluminum pie tins, paper placemats. Courtesy the artist; photos: Gary Krueger; digital scan: Augusta Wood. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Perfect, 1970Paint on cardboard boxes. Courtesy the artist. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Al’s Grand Hotel, 1971Environmental/Happening, first presented at 7175 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, California, May 7–June 12, 1971. Courtesy the artist; photo: Gene Pittman, Walker Art Center. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Greetings from California, 1972Acrylic on canvas. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase with funds from Ron Bailey, Peter Norton, Phil Aarons, Kevin Brine, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Raymond J. McGuire, Jon Sandelman, and David Wasserman, 2005.16. Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art. -
Allen Ruppersberg, My Secret Life, 1974/2012Chromogenic print. Courtesy Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles; photo: Robert Wedemeyer. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Self-Portrait Making a Face Like Barney Bear, 1975Graphite and colored pencil on paper. Courtesy Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles; photo: Robert Wedemeyer. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Cover Art (Space Adventures), 1985Collage of commercially printed ephemera, mixed media, Dymo tape on four panels. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Purchased through the Board of Overseers Acquisition Fund; photo courtesy Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film, 1991Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, partial gift of Eileen and Michael Cohen, 2014; photo: courtesy of artist. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Good Dreams, Bad Dreams (What Was Sub-Literature?), 1996Mixed-media installation with nineteen hand-painted signs, stanchion sign, four color photographs, forty books from the artist’s collection. Collection Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Installation view of the exhibition Good Dreams, Bad Dreams,: American Mythologies; photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli. -
Allen Ruppersberg, The Singing Posters: Allen Ginsberg's Howl by Allen Ruppersberg (Parts I-III), 2003/2005(detail). Commercially printed letterpress posters. Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali, New York; photo courtesy Skirball Museum, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles; photo: Robert Wedemeyer. -
Allen Ruppersberg, The Singing Posters: Allen Ginsberg's Howl by Allen Ruppersberg (Parts I-III), 2003/2005(detail). Commercially printed letterpress posters. Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali, New York; photo courtesy Skirball Museum, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles; photo: Robert Wedemeyer. -
Allen Ruppersberg, Honey, I rearranged the collection asking myself the question—who is the founder of conceptual art?, 2010Silkscreen and collaged photographs on paper. Courtesy Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane. -
Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, installation viewHammer Museum, Los Angeles, February 10–May 12, 2019. Photo: Jeff McLane.
Lead support for the exhibition is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Major support is provided by the Prospect Creek Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support is generously provided by Carlo Bronzini Vender, Jill and Peter Kraus, Margo Leavin, and Maja Oeri. Major support for the Hammer Museum's presentation is provided by the Hammer Global Council. Generous support is also provided by Kathi and Gary Cypres, Karyn Kohl and Silas Dilworth, and Chara Schreyer and Gordon Freund, with additional support from the Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund.
Media sponsorship is provided by Cultured Magazine, KCET, and KCRW 89.9.
Join Us.
Hammer membership gives you special access to public programs, opening parties, and puts you in the mix of L.A.’s vibrant art scene.
Free for everyone, more for you.